The quest for an acceptable toilet paper dispenser has continued for many years and provide a multitude of dispensers having various features and structures. Despite the large number of dispensers which have been produced, none seems to quite adequately perform all the desired functions well.
One problem commonly associated with dispensers used in public restrooms is the need for preventing theft of the toilet paper. Although many locking dispensers have been manufactured, the interaction between the locking system and the dispenser or roll has often made it difficult for the user to easily dispense the tissue paper. The complementary problem is that dispensers should not allow rolls to be easily spun lest someone will spin off large amounts of tissue for use elsewhere or to be mischievously left on the restroom floor for the custodian to clean up. The efficient maintenance of restrooms also requires that individual rolls be completely used before the next roll is available for dispensing. The rolls should also be kept clean and protected from damage while awaiting use.
A particular area of concern to users is the difficulty in removing roll cores in some prior art dispensers. The multitude of systems are shown in the prior art directed to the removal of the roll cores while maintaining the security of any additional rolls stored within the dispenser. Users are also primarily concerned with the availability of additional tissue.
It is also necessary to have a toilet paper dispenser which can be easily loaded and maintained by the custodian. These and other problems are addressed by the current invention, using an original, novel and useful design not heretofore shown in the prior art, some of which is discussed below.
One prior art paper dispenser is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,125 to Rial, et al. The Rial patent shows a multi-roll dispenser which is loaded from the top and has a post which is mounted on an assembly which tilts forward to allow the roll core to be removed. A somewhat similar arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,295,777 to Carroll.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,052 to Clarke discloses a two-roll dispenser having a catch which extends along the core tube and has two detents which engage and hold the bottom of the rolls. The Clarke dispenser has a bottom plate which only allows the used roll cores to drop through.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,592,346 to Scogin shows a multi-roll dispenser having rolls which are stacked with their cores in a transverse position across the dispenser.
Other various dispensers are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,553,389 to Steiner, et al.; 3,168,258 to Schwartz; and 2,991,951 to Carrol. None of these prior art references shows a dispenser which is similar to the current invention, the novel features of which will be more fully explained in the description of the invention given below.